By, Siraj Hashmi
Washington D.C. based incubator, 1776, hosted Chelsea Clinton, the Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation and daughter of Bill & Hillary Clinton, to discuss the issue of global health and engaging entrepreneurs to expand innovation into the developing world.
The 35-year old esteemed philanthropist touched on ways to engage millennials to be passionate about bringing new ideas as well as technology and innovation to the poorest regions of the world, one of which is expanding the rights and opportunities offered to women and girls.
"I'm obsessed with middle school," Clinton admitted.
Clinton noted that girls in first through third grade are far better at math and science than boys their age, yet the trends start to reverse at around the fourth grade and continue to widen in middle school. She cited the reason for this is that girls around that age start to care more about their appearance, but mainly because teachers in middle school call on males more than females in science and math class.
"Teachers are basically saying to girls, 'your opinion doesn't matter.'"
Clinton went on to state that one of the ways to get young women and girls engaged in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs is to give successful female entrepreneurs and innovators exposure, and have them share their stories, so that, as Clinton put it, "they know that innovators don't just look like Mark Zuckerberg [Founder and CEO of Facebook]."
While Clinton took questions from the audience at 1776, no questions were asked about the 2016 presidential race, her mother's candidacy as well as her email controversy.
The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify before a select committee in the House of Representatives investigating the 2012 attacks on a American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens as well as three other Americans.
Currently, Secretary Clinton holds a slim lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, 38.7 to 35.3, according to Real Clear Politics average, but trails Sanders in New Hampshire by nine points.